Heavenly Fox
by Yoshtar
Summary: A young Shinji wanders off and stumbles across a creature not born of Adam or Lilith, of incredible power that inspired a great many tales and much folklore in east asia. With a best friend to rely upon, Shinji is a vastly different young man to what he could have been.
1. Chapter 1

Shinji was exceptionally young when he met his first and oldest friend. Too young to really remember anything, after his mom died and her had been given to foster-care as Gendo Ikari had been uninterested in raising a small child, the young Shinji had run away, looking for his 'Momma' and gotten himself lost in the woods.

Scared and alone, and hopelessly lost up on the untamed wilderness of a mountainside, he happened across an abandoned shrine, and met with the shrine's guardian. A lone fox had taken up residence, and Shinji, being too young to understand a wild fox was simple creature and a dangerous thing for a small child, walked straight up to it and tried to talk to it.

The fox paid attention, and curled up next to the crying child until he could manage words between his sobbing. Shinji tried to pet it as best he could, though he was clumsy at it and his entire body was shaking as he sobbed uncontrollably.

The fox curled up closer to Shinji, cuddling him with her body. Shinji tried to return the gesture, holding close to the fox and as the sobs subsided, the young Shinji fell asleep, his only source of warmth and comfort being the vixen he'd found.

With morning came a new day full of new possibilities, and Shinji found himself clumsily chasing after the little fox he'd found, down the mountain trails, through underbrush. The vixen wasn't letting him fall behind or catch up. Always one step ahead, Shinji's arms and legs burned, but a few careful moments where he nearly caught her again kept him going.

Shinji laughed as he chased after his new friend. Though he had no idea where they were going. Eventually the land flattened out and gave way to increasingly urban terrain, people taking note of a five-year-old chasing a fox through town, but ultimately not caring enough to do much.

Shinji found the people assigned to care for him staring at the fox, marvelling at it, until Shinji caught up and grabbed her with a big two-armed hug, squeezing it as hard as he could.

"You lead me home again! Thank you so much!"

The fox yipped, her voice muffled as her weight and the way Shinji was holding her pushed her thick coat of fur around her muzzle.

Shinji's adoptive father disappeared into the house for a moment before coming back with a camera. Shinji looked at the strange new device until it flashed and Shinji's eyes hurt and had a ghost of the flash bulb floating around in it, dropping his new best friend.

With a mechanical whirring, Shinji's surrogate-father waited for the photo to come out and shook the polaroid in the air whilst he waited for it to develop. Shinji marvelled as he saw the picture of him holding the fox.

"Can I keep it?" Shinji asked "It saved me and brought me all the way back here after being lost."

"I don't know-"

"Please!"

"It's a wild animal"

"I'll make sure it doesn't make a mess."

"You don't even know if it's a boy or girl."

Shinji looked at his new best friend, and he asked her "Are you a boy or girl?"

The fox only whined at him.

"Oh… can you bark once for a boy and twice for a girl?"

To the surrogate's surprise, the fox barked exactly twice for Shinji

"So you're a girl-fox? Then I think I'll call you Kiyone."

"Well, she'll be your responsibility. You'll have to clean her and feed her and take her out for walks, and if she makes a mess you'll have to clean it up." Shinji's surrogate dad told him.

Shinji modded his head vigorously. He would do his best to make sure he always gave Kiyone the best of care.

* * *

His guardians watched in bemusement as Shinji rushed around, packing his bag full of things for his pet fox.

"Seems like only yesterday he was coming in off that hill with her."

"He was lucky he found that shrine, and Kiyone."

"Old thing, can't imagine it's much longer for the world."

"I'd hate to see Shinji when that does happen. Kiyone's the world to him… she doesn't show it any."

"Indeed, it's been ten years and she hasn't slowed down one bit."

"Who'd have thought that telling him to make sure he looked after her would lead to him getting a doctorate."

"Indeed… though, I suppose it's only natural that he save the sanctuary… he wrote the book on foxes, it'd be a shame to have to let go of the creatures he studied like that."

"And now a mystery call from this NERV… I wonder what it could be."

"Who knows. We'll surely find out eventually though."

"Indeed."

Shinji burst in suddenly. "I can't find my tape deck, have you seen it?"

Shinji's caretakers giggled and pointed, and Shinji turned aroudn to find Kiyone had the tapedeck in her mouth, waiting for him expectantly.

"Oh." was all Shinji said as he went over and plied Kiyone with pats and scratches to retrieve his tapedeck from her.

* * *

Shinji was sure he was in the right place… this 'Misato' was just late. Looking up at the Fox standing on his shoulder, Shinji pat her to keep her occupied.

"Hopefully it won't be much longer now, Kiyone, or we'll just have to get to a shelter without her." Shinji said

As he said that, Kiyone barked, gripping his shoulder as her hackles rose, and she assumed a defensive posture. The drone of several helicopter's blades became audible not long before a terrifying, black monster littered with white bone-like protrusions all over its body came around a mountain, surrounded by attack helicopters from the JSSDF.

The Helicopters shot at it with salvoes of missiles and hailstorms of bullets, but nothing even scratched it. The kaiju swatted one o the helicopters out of the sky, sending it careening through the air to crash near Shinji. Kiyone leapt off Shinji's shoulder and pulled at his pants leg until he followed her into a nearby alleyway as The Kaiju then leapt, one foot landing on the crashed helicopter and touching off the fuel. The explosion rained shrapnel and metal fragments up and down the streets.

Shinji pat Kiyone as the Kaiju leapt away, emerging from their hiding place just as a blue car pulled a bootlegger's turn and came screeching to a halt in front of them.

The driver rolled down the window and said "Get in."

"Are you Misato?"

"Yes."

Shinji nodded and piled in with the bag full of his things, Kiyone jumping in his lap and rolling over, tail wagging. Shinji just rolled his eyes and scratched her belly, enjoying the happy purring it caused… or at least the fox equivalent of purring, which sounded a lot like a dog's whining.

"It doesn't sound like she likes that." Misato said

"Foxes vocalise differently. We're hardwired to understand dogs, not foxes." Shinji informed Misato

"How old is she?"

"She was two or three when we met, and I've had her for close to ten years… at least twelve, maybe older." Shinji said "she's quite old, but it doesn't show in the slightest."

Shinji got a swat on the arm from Kiyone's tail for that. Shinji just gave her more bellyscratches to mollify her.

They stopped to take a break two hours later on the city outskirts. Misato was watching the fight through a pair of binoculars as Shinji let Kiyone run around for a bit.

Shinji had just let Kiyone back in when Misato shouted "They're using an N2 Mine?! Get Down!"

Misato curled around Shinji to protect him, who was doing the same for the fox in his lap. There was an explosion that lit up the horizon, and a steadily growing trail of destruction as the pressure wave raced towards them at breakneck speed.

Kiyone cast a small warding spell to help protect them as the 'Bang' reached them, and the wind blew fiercely against the car, eventually lifting it up and throwing it dozens of meters, rolling over and over until it came to a rest on its side. Even with magical protection, that had still sucked.

All three took a few moments to disentangle themselves and poked their heads out the car, the strong wind off the clean nuke's blast blowing their hair around.

"We should get moving."

Everyone climbed out and set about getting moving again. Misato and Shinji worked to push the car back onto its wheels, pushing and working as hard as they could for several minutes. Misato tried the key and found that the starting motor wasn't turning. Looking under the bonnet revealed that her battery had been cracked and was leaking fluid everywhere, and most definitely not holding a charge.

Kiyone arrived not long after with a spare taken from a different car.

"That's… one resourceful fox." Misato said

"Yeah… she has this weird tendency to have what you need right as you need it." Shinji said "I used to think she stole my stuff until she showed me she was just good at finding it… well, she does steal things, but she also gives them back when I need them too."

Misato blinked, staring at Shinji like he'd grown two heads as he kept babbling on about his pet fox.

"And I thought Rits said he'd be an introvert…"

"Did you say something Misato?"

"N-nothing, Shinji!"

Shinji shrugged, before going back to talking about his pet fox as Misato finally got her car running again.

* * *

[Insert transition noises here]

* * *

Misato was ready to shoot Shinji first, then herself, if she couldn't find the EVA-01 soon.

"...Did you know that foxes normally only live two years, but live up to 15 in captivity… Kiyone here's managed about 12 and she's still going strong. I think she's gonna have a world record for world's oldest fox soon."

Misato had to resist the urge to slam her head into the wall as Shinji spouted out more fox facts. Thankfully, Ritsuko chose that moment to step into the Elevator.

Misato immediately told Ritsuko "I have a splitting headache; He's your problem now." and stormed off.

Ritsuko stared at Shinji "What got into her?"

Shinji just shrugged.

"No Matter. Come this way, we have a lot of ground to cover very quickly." Ritsuko said, Leading Shinji in the right direction at long last.

Shinji found himself travelling by boat across a lake of orange liquid, and passed through a wall that was several meters thick to find a giant robot.

"A giant robot?" Shinji asked

"Indeed." Ritsuko said

"Whoa."

"Indeed."

"Why are you showing me this?" Shinji asked

"We need you to pilot it." Ritsuko supplied

"Pilot that thing?"

"Yes indeed."

A lone figure appeared silhouetted

"...who's that?"

"That's Gendo Ikari"

"Who?"

Ritsuko blinked in surprise "It's your father."

"... oh. Hi." Was all Shinji said before bending down to pat Kiyone some more. Foxes were high-energy, high-maintenance pets that needed a lot of attention at the best of times.

"Who's a good girl, you are! Yes you are! Who gets lots of belly scratches!"

The fox whines happily, much to Gendo and Ritsuko's frustration.

"Shinji, I need you to get in that robot and defeat that angel."

"Sure. Can you look after Kiyone for a moment whilst I do that" Shinji said, handing the ball of red-orange fur to Ritsuko

Ritsuko reluctantly accepted Kiyone and handed Shinji the neural headband, before showing him where to get into the Entry Plug.

* * *

EVA-01 rocketed to the surface, Shinji in the LCL was left mostly unaffected by the intense G-forces of such a rapid ascension.

"Just focus on trying to walk, Shinji" Ritsuko said, before sneezing several times as Kiyone rubbed against her face from her seat in the scientists lap.

Shinji nodded, grabbed the controls, and managed one step before falling flat on his face.

* * *

The fight was… short, at least, even if it wasn't bloodless or clean. At least EVA-01 had protected Shinji from Sahiel's self destruction… Shinji, remarkably, didn't suffer much psychological duress. When Sahiel had grabbed his arm, it had reminded him of the many times an overly aggressive fox had bitten his wrist at the sanctuary, and he'd almost reflexively broken the hold.

His studies of hunting techniques had led to him shoulder-checking Sahiel and then pummeling it whilst it was down, avoiding its attempts to grab him or attack him whilst it was down from hours of playing with Kiyone and her sharp digging claws, as he trying to attack anything that looked vulnerable until he found the glowing red thing, which looked like a clearly telegraphed weakpoint if he'd ever seen one, and had promptly smashed it to bits.

Now Shinji stood before Gendo, and was trying to keep Kiyone still. She didn't like him, and that was reason enough for Shinji to not like or trust Gendo. Kiyone had never been wrong once. Usually, whenever Kiyone had proven to not like someone, that person had gone on to mean bad news for someone Shinji knew, from bullying to bad rumours to attempting to kick Kiyone, Shinji knew to trust Kiyone's judgement.

And Kiyone said Gendo was bad news… in fact, he'd heard her growl or bark at some bad offenders, but Kiyone had her hackles up and looked ready to fight or run.

This was unprecedented, and Shinji wondered what sort of evil, evil man his supposed father was.

"We will need you to fight again, Shinji. There will be more angels coming."

"Sure" Shinji said, not able to muster more of a response from attempting to calm Kiyone, primising extra pats and special treats if she would calm down and behave herself.

It wasn't until he mentioned Tofu that Kiyone seemed to take notice of the bribe.

"Then go. I will need you tomorrow to run some tests." Gendo said

As Shinji left, Gendo began to place a call. "Pilot Ikari's fox… I need it 'taken care of'. Pilot Ikari is far too attached to it to allow it to remain and still accomplish our scenario."

"Understood sir. I'll see to it immediately."

* * *

Shinji had just finished cleaning out Misato's place, and he was feeling sticky from the sorts of… 'refuse' he'd had to deal with; Mostly beer cans with that last little bit at the bottom leaking all over him. Mostly.

Shinji was taking a shower whilst Misato prepared dinner for the two of them, and Kiyone was exploring the apartment, running to and fro.

It didn't take long for Kiyone to encounter a man sneaking in a window.

Kiyone screeched and growled, but Shinji couldn't hear her in the shower, and Misato probably didn't know what Kiyone's vocalisations meant.

The man saw her making a racket and pulled out a large t-shaped bit of metal with a hole in the front- a modern welrod-style pistol.

The man pointed it at the fox and squeezed the trigger, the pistol barked quiet enough that Misato missed it from the other room and Kiyone lay bleeding on the floor.

The man then squirted a little lighter fluid and dropped a lighter on the floor to ensure no one would find evidence. The fire spread rapidly along the accelerants until it touched the bleeding fox.

To the assassin's great surprise, the fire immediately snuffed out, shooting straight towards the fox, who stood back up, suddenly missing the bleeding hole in its side.

Then the fox opened its mouth and instead of a screech or other alarm sound, Kiyone breathed a steady stream of fire.

The man screamed, trying to beat out the fire and accidentally pummeled himself in the crotch. Panicking, a headbutt from Kiyone was all it took to send him tumbling backwards out the window and falling all the way down to ground floor. As luck would have it, he smashed into and through the upper boughs of a tree and landed mostly unharmed by the time he ate dirt.

The man's burning crotch quickly spurred him to start rolling to try and put out the fire, to little success until someone put him out and called an Ambulance.

Kiyone watched from the window sill before walking off with her nose in the air.

"How's that for foxfire."

* * *

 **Ok, this is rough as hell, but Saraphima insisted I publish this, and after putting me through Evangelion, End of Evangelion AND Rebuild, I'm too jaded to really argue. Have a floofy christmas all.**


	2. Chapter 2

Gendo glared at the agent reporting to him. He was not a patient man, and failure would have to be punished.

"I did not ask for excuses, and if you expect me to believe that a _fox_ can breath _fire_ , you must think I'm either stupid or gullible. I am neither, Agent. You can either submit to a full medical exam to search for traces of whatever psychotropic drugs are having an effect on you, or you can consider yourself fired." Gendo said, glaring at him over his tented fingers.

The Section 2 Agent gulped and asked for the exam. Up until now, it had been a well paid, but lazy and cushy job. He wasn't about to give it up. He thought it was incredibly unfair, but there was so much money involved…

He'd grit his teeth and suck it up.

* * *

Kiyone and Misato shared a glance as Shinji stood in the doorway.

"That's Pen Pen. He's a penguin. He's your other roommate" Misato explained

"What's it doing in the shower?"

"You'd have to ask him."

"Oh."

"Are you going to cover that up?" Misato added.

Shinji looked down confused until he realised his state of undress, and turned bright red. He cupped himself and made for the bathroom as quick as possible.

There was a silent moment as Misato sipped her beer and Kiyone stared at where Shinji had been. Misato noticed after a while that Kiyone's tail was wagging very fast after the show they'd been given and thought it odd, but not worth commenting on. Kiyone's head turned, seemingly sensing she was being watched, slowly rotating until their eyes met. At that, Kiyone screeched and scampered through the house.

"Weird fox." Misato said "Though, I suppose I can't talk. It's not like Pen Pen's a normal penguin either… though, Pen Pen did come from the lab."

* * *

Shinji watched as Kiyone rolled around and played with Rei, surprised at her behaviour. He'd never seen Kiyone play with other people like that before. She'd accept pats, but she only ever seemed to want to play with Shinji up until now.

Shinji smiled at Rei as she tried to play along, and though she couldn't always keep up with the energetic vixen, she certainly seemed to be enjoying herself.

"You seem to really like Kiyone… I'm always looking for homes for foxes, would you like one yourself?" Shinji asked, causing Rei to suddenly falter

"I- uh… I-..."

"Hey! Ikari! I need to speak to you" one of Shinji's classmates shouted from across the yard. Toji if he recalled correctly.

"Hold that thought, I'll go see what this is." Shinji said as he left to go see what the fuss was about.

Rei narrowed her eyes as she watched Kiyone track Shinji closely with her eyes, the fox's hackles raising slightly as Shinji happily and obliviously walked towards the clearly enraged teen.

Then Rei gasped as she saw Toji punch Shinji in the jaw, with Kensuke just watching the goings on.

Kiyone was out of Rei's arms before she could blink. Toji never saw the streak of orange fur coming until a 10 kilogram ball of fur slugged him in the fork of the legs like a cannonball. Toji froze, standing still as the pained expression slowly crept onto his face.

The vengeful little fluffball screeched at him angrily, before trotting over to Shinji and licking at the quickly forming bruise.

Shinji stood up shakily as Rei approached, barely able to hide her quickened pace and the glare she aimed at Toji.

To Shinji it was a slight frown, but for anyone who knew the girl for any amount of time, her expression was practically murderous.

"Pilot Ikari, I believe you were offering to provide me with a fox of my own?"

"I- was… what was that for?" Shinji said, turning to address Toji

"You see, his sister got hurt in the big monster fight last night." Kensuke said

"How do I go about getting a fox?" Rei presses ignoring the teen who had hurt Shinji and his annoying friend.

"I'll take you to the sanctuary later, Rei, and we'll see if you can pick one out there." Shinji said, patting Kiyone and getting back up.

Rei twitched with indecision for several seconds before grabbing his hand and dragging him away from the potentially dangerous threat of Toji. "We can go now. Neither of us have anything to learn from this level of schooling."

Kiyone gave a rather un-foxlike chuckle as her subtle mental nudges towards Rei took effect.

* * *

"Supposedly Shinji's had it since before Nerv was formed." Ritsuko said before taking a drag from her cigarette

"Surely you know more than that."

"I would, but it seems that someone or something is keeping anything resembling a paper trail or accurate information about either of them out of Nerv's hands. We have some older reports that we can see were doctored to hell and back now." Ritsuko said

"Do we know who?" Misato asked

"No. It seems according to all accounts, everything was handled as it should have been, and then some hoodlum sets the place on fire and everything's lost. Every single time." Ritsuko replied

"Huh."

"And I seriously doubt that Kiyone is a wild fox… yet she shows none of the classical signs of a pre-second impact domesticated fox… the skull's all wrong, the ears are too perky-"

"Don't you start too!" Misato cried out

"I'm sorry." Ritsuko apologised

"I got enough of that from Shinji. Please, no more." Misato bemoaned

"Oh, speaking of, apparently it's Doctor Ikari." Ritsuko said

"What?"

"Shinji has a Ph.D"

"No way."

"Oh yes. I read his thesis. There was more there than I really ever wanted to know about foxes, but it was well researched and his discovery was rather enlightening." Ritsuko explained

Misato stared at Ritsuko incredulously. "How does a 15 year old get a Doctorate for researching foxes of all things?"

"Shinji successfully completed the research that started in Russia in 1959, and with help from a close friend of his, successfully made a fully domesticated parrot with the genetics he identified in Silver Foxes. In a way, it was a lot like your own research with Pen Pen, helping animals adapt after Second Impact. Shinji was of the mind that domesticating at-risk species would save them from extinction, if everyone who wanted exotic pets..." Ritsuko summarised

"I see… I guess that explains his obsession with foxes…" Misato said

"No, he credits Kiyone with that." Ritsuko corrected

"Of course he does. Where is he now?" Misato asked

"He should be in class right about now, though apparently Rei dragged him to his Fox Village."

"The what?"

"Japan had a fox sanctuary before the second Impact, and Shinji used it as a resource for his studies in fox behaviour and vocalisations. After, Shinji worked to keep it safe from all the fallout, and he currently more or less owns the place." Ritsuko explained

"Where is it?"

"Well, Shinji had it turned into a National Heritage Site not long after they wanted to build Tokyo-3 over it. Legally Nerv's hands were tied, so they built around it. It's in the outskirts if you want to see."

"I guess." Misato said before her phone rang

"Hello?" Misato asked

" _Operations Commander, Pilot Ikari has invited you and Ritsuko to meet him at the Fox Sanctuary on the northern end of town._ " Rei's monotone voice informed them, before hanging up abruptly.

"...Well, he did invite us." Ritsuko said

"We'll take my car. It's faster, in case anything pops up" Misato said

* * *

Several hours later, Ritsuko laughed as Misato was slowly overwhelmed by a small horde of foxes, buried under a horde of squirming orange bodies for the simple crime of being the one who had bought a bag of kibble from the kiosk to feed the foxes with.

"They like you Misato!"

"Screw you Ritsuko! Shinji! Help!"

Shinji just shrugged, a big goofy grin plastered over his face at the sight of his happy foxes. "This is about how feeding time usually goes… the keepers do try and stay on their feet though"

"This isn't funny! Help!"

Shinji just laughed happily, before whistling sharply, the horde of foxes quickly swarming over to him for their pats and cuddles.

Misato sat up, hair disheveled with dirt and grass and small sticks stuck in it, the rest of her not faring much better, and covered in a thin sheen from all the foxes licking her.

"Remind me not to do this again."

"Noted."

Everyone paused as the foxes stopped, their ears peeking up and growling slightly at the distance.

Shinji stood up, before whistling sharply. Every fox in the village immediately ran for a series of burrows in the village. At the questioning glances, Shinji said "They know that signal means danger; hide; and they'll flee to the bunker buried under the village... They're smart like that."

Shinji paused as the warning sirens started going off, in time with everyone's NERV issued phones ringing.

Misato stopped attempting to reorder her appearance and raced to her car.

Rei scooped up a three-month-old male kit she'd chose, but had yet to name, and followed suit. She was closely followed by Shinji, Kiyone and Ritsuko.

* * *

There was some snickering after a brief observation was shared amongst the technicians: one of them procured a photo of the new Angel, and was crass enough to note it's 'freudian' design.

Shinji ignored them as he climbed into the Entry Plug and prepared himself for the next fight. Shinji fought to make himself relax as the LCL flooded the plug and ionised around him, turning clear and as viscous as air. The umbilical cord was attached to EVA-01's back and Shinji's evangelion was lifted into position and quickly launched upwards.

Shinji arrived via one of the special buildings that housed 'landing' points for the evangelions and stepped out to see the Angel hovering over the city.

Shinji dashed to get some space between himself and the angel, and to put something between himself and the Angel. Shinji 'buzzed' the Angel with repeated bursts from the not-so-minigun he'd been given.

The Angel responded by lashing out with tentacles, grabbing Shinji by the throat and hurling him as far away as possible. Shinji coughed as his throat was released, rubbing the soreness out in time to feel his back impact the forested mountain, the trees only marginally helping with cushioning the impact before they were reduced to matchsticks.

Shinji took stock of the situation. He didn't need to be a genius to figure out this situation was bad… not to mention, his umbilical was out, and he only had three minutes before EVA-01 would shut down on him. He would need to make this quick, and to do that he'd need to ensure he had an upper hand.

Shinji looked for his potential advantage, and found only Toji and Kensuke mere meters from having been turned into paté. Shinji's priorities shifted to include getting those two to safety as soon as possible, and the safest place anywhere in Tokyo-3 was the inside of an EVA.

Ritsuko seemed to reach the same conclusion, and told Shinji to let them in, so Shinji removed the Entry Plug enough for them to get at the access hatch. Their mad scramble, and their hesitance to dive into the LCL only wasted a minute and a half. Shinji had another minute and a half to finish this. Seeing as the rifle was bad for Angels, Shinji changed tactics… invulnerability didn't save one from entrapment, and Shinji spied a nice high-rise parking garage that would do nicely.

Shinji ignored his orders to retreat, pushed through the mental noise of his classmates and stitched a line of rounds that tore straight through the building's foundations. The Garage toppled over and smashed into the angel, trapping it under hundreds of tons of steel and concrete rubble.

The weight wouldn't hold it for long, and already the glowing tentacles had come up and sliced through once, though that didn't save it from the sheer weight being piled on top of it. Shinji charged down the mountain bellowing a warcry, discarding his rifle (and causing a good chunk of property damage) and drawing the large folding knife in his mech's shoulder.

The tentacles lashed out, and punctured Shinji's shoulders, but Shinji ignored it. This thing needed to die, and he didn't have a choice with his momentum. Shinji plunged the knife into the exposed red core and kept pushing and pushing, trying to break it. The tentacles in his shoulders _burned_ , and Shinji wanted to do nothing more than run away, hide and obey Command's orders, but he wouldn't eject. There was no time. Shinji was close enough, he wouldn't lose to this monster.

Toji and Kensuke watched as Shinji screamed incoherently, seeing the pilot pushing more and more on the blade, even feeling a dull shadow of the pain that Shinji was feeling in the LCL.

Then the knife slipped just a little bit lower, and the red gem shattered like glass. Its influence died and the Angel went limp and still under EVA-01, just as the last of the energy in the EVA was used up, and the machine went cold and dead around them. Toji and Kensuke suddenly had a newfound respect and understanding of their classmate. Piloting one of these things was… horrifying, and they could respect Shinji for choosing to continue to pilot it.

They were stuck there for half an hour whilst the entry plug was manually ejected enough to let the three teens escape, only for and orange streak of fur to slam into Shinji's chest and send him back into the entry plug.

Kiyone attempted to lick Shinji's face raw but instead got a tongue full of LCL and made a face of disgust. Shinji pat her as consolation, and cradled her in his arms before someone threw a towel at him.

Misato looked at the scene and mused "God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world"


End file.
